Review of Vengeance Trilogy Box Set, The

Introduction

The thing about successful stories is that esoteric subjects are really hard to pull off. And that`s coming from a sci-fi fan, a genre where esoteric should be common currency. The best stories work by appealing to our emotions. Higher brain activity is all well and good, but stories that make us feel, empathise, cringe, rage, or laugh are the ones that make the deepest impressions. The more primal the emotion is, the more effective the story, which is one reason why horror movies will never go away. Just as primal as fear is revenge, indeed the two emotions are often intertwined. It`s something that speaks to our very core, and is something we learn at a very young age. All it takes is two toddlers and one toy to demonstrate that, and is perhaps a chilling indictment of human nature. As we grow older and evidently none the wiser, the need to get even remains when we are slighted. Justice is supposed to be a sign of civilisation, a substitute for revenge they say, but suggest the possibility of rehabilitation or parole to the victims of crime and there is usually a public outcry. On the geopolitical scale, terms such as pre-emptive strikes, UN resolutions, treaty violations and no-fly zones abound. But it all boils down to whether North Korea will spill the US`s pint, or whether Iran will look at them funny. And don`t get me started on the Middle East.

But before this turns into a late night drunken pub rant about the inequities of life, let`s get back to the stories. For where the 24-hour news channels show the bloody results of generations of grudges to depressing effect, stories can take the desire for revenge and craft epic, glorious tales that thrill and entertain. Throughout human history there have been such stories, the phrase `an eye for an eye` attests to that. Shakespeare was masterful at exploring humanity, and what he did with the subject of revenge is still effective today. And in cinema, audiences revel at the hero getting even with the villain. Of course, seeing Arnie mowing down a field of South American vigilantes who stand between him and his daughter is a satisfying experience. We never wonder how John Matrix feels about his actions, we don`t need to. We also don`t consider the relatives of his victims coming after him for retribution. Deeper thought really isn`t required. Commando is an extreme example, but with rare exceptions modern Hollywood tends to see revenge as black or white, good guys versus bad guys, right will triumph and evil will suffer. You`re with us or against us, shoulder to shoulder. But that is the movies, and not real life. We all know that revenge is a base emotion that is just as harmful to all involved. Another one of those trite maxims is that `Before you set out for revenge, dig two graves.` Revenge can be a far more complex and nuanced emotion than typical Hollywood productions are willing to explore.

In his Vengeance trilogy, South Korean director Park Chan-wook shows that revenge can be layered, convoluted, epic, masterful, chilling, manipulative and seductive. Like in the most grand of vendettas, revenge begets revenge, and cycles of violence and suffering lead to self-destruction. Labyrinthine plots twist and turn, and leave the audience gasping at the sheer audacity of the stories. This is revenge taken to a higher level. And it`s packaged on six discs in this boxset, containing all three films, Sympathy For Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and the Fade To White version of Lady Vengeance.

Tartan have completely remastered the films, given them PAL transfers and extra features that weren`t available on the original releases. The stories are explained in depth above, and to go any deeper would invite spoilers.

Video

If there is one annoyance that I have with Eastern cinema, it`s the profusion of NTSC-PAL conversions, and the low resolution, ghosting and softness that usually results. Apparently the original release of Sympathy For Mr Vengeance was treated this way.

Not any more, as for this boxset, the films get proper PAL transfers with the 4% speedup that implies. All three films are presented in the 2.35:1 anamorphic ratio, and they look sublime.

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance is crystal clear, sharp and pristine. Detail levels are excellent, and the stupendous cinematography is done full justice by the transfer. It`s one of those films that deserve a second viewing just to take in the beauty of the compositions. It`s almost perfect. The only flaw is a couple of minor artefacts close to the end of the film. At 1.51:57 and 1.52:35, there are a couple of frames where there is a burst of edge enhancement. Blink and you`ll miss them, and I had to frame advance my way through the scene to be sure.

Oldboy

Oldboy gets a similar treatment for its transfer, although it isn`t quite as impressive as the first film. Detail levels are once again high, and the transfer brings out the best in the cinematography, lighting and set design. However, I did feel that grain was more apparent, edge enhancement was a tad more noticeable, and there was dot crawl in certain scenes, although whether that is a by-product of the bleach bypass process, I don`t know. A word about the bleach bypass used in this film; most such films I have seen are striking and harsh in their appearance. Here the effect is so subtle that it barely impinges on the awareness, and the oddness of the look really only registers on a subconscious level. It`s all the more effective for that. Just as before however, there are two flaws in the transfer, bizarre frames where the image takes on a thin stripy interlaced look. Once again, blink and you`ll miss them, but they are at, 1.18:30 and 1.36:48.

Lady Vengeance

Lady Vengeance completes the set with another excellent transfer. It`s clear and sharp once again, perhaps bordering on the excessively sharp, as there are some almost subliminal aliasing issues. This is the Fade To White Version, and as mentioned in the film`s introduction, the director`s intended vision of the film. As the film progresses, colours leach out of the picture, taking us from a bright colourful red Santa filled opening scene to a practically monochrome final scene. It`s a dramatically effective device, subtly accomplished; however it does mean that darker scenes in the middle of the film lose a little detail and contrast. This disc didn`t have any suspect frames that I noticed.

Audio

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance provides the choice of DTS, DD 5.1 and DD 2.0 Korean, with optional English subtitles. Unfortunately these are some of those discs where you can`t change audio or subtitle tracks on the fly, and flicking through the commentary subtitles while keeping the original audio on would have been nice. Sympathy For Mr Vengeance relies heavily on the sound design. It`s effectively done, with several scenes taking place from the protagonist Ryu`s point of view. Given that he is deaf and dumb means that the sound takes on a muffled underwater quality. The surrounds are put to good use to convey the action and the ambience of the film, although it is light on music.

Oldboy

Sound for Oldboy, and hold your breath now. We have DD 5.1 EX, DTS 6.1 ES, and DD 2.0 Korean, we have DD 5.1 and DD 2.0 English with translated English subtitles. There are also three stereo commentary tracks. The English dub can be dispensed with off the bat. It really is no way to watch the film, and it just feels wrong. The Korean surround tracks may seem like overkill, this is no Hollywood scale seismic blockbuster, but the surrounds are put to good use, and give equal weight to the intense action as well as the more subtle quieter moments. This is one film that depends more on the music to drive the intensity of the piece, and you can feel your heart begin to race as the movie starts.

Lady Vengeance

Like the first film, Lady Vengeance gets Korean soundtracks of the DD 2.0, 5.1 and DTS persuasion, accompanied by English subtitles. This is where I would talk about the effective sound design and subtle use of the surrounds, were it not for a glaring flaw that renders all that moot. There are significant sound sync issues with this disc, and depending on how much of your attention is spent on reading the subtitles, it could render watching the film impossible. The sound starts drifting out of sync at about 58 minutes in, and finally gets back into sync 22 minutes from the end. That`s just over half an hour of the film affected. It`s most noticeable just after the layer change, and the problem was present on both my player and my PC.

Features

Each film gets two discs devoted to it, with the feature discs packed with bountiful commentaries.

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance gets just the one commentary though. Another Korean Director, Ryu Seung-wan, joins Director Park Chan-wook in talking about the film. It very much follows an interview format, with the former asking Park about the film. It offers significant information about the film, the cast and the filmmaking process.

The supplementary disc contains the remaining extras, beginning with Jonathan Ross On Park Chan-wook, which lasts 17 minutes. This is essentially the interview that was conducted for his Asian Invasion series, and looks at Park Chan-wook`s films up to and including Oldboy.

The Process Of Mr Vengeance lasts 32 minutes and is a somewhat eclectic making of featurette. Beginning with the principal actor learning sign language, there is plenty of behind the scenes footage as well as interviews with the cast and crew. It ends with a look at how some of the special effects were accomplished, as well as how a fight scene was choreographed.

My Boksu Story lasts 17 minutes and has interviews with the main cast who reflect on the film some time after its completion. It`s also a chance for them to promote their latest films.

The Crew Interviews last 22 minutes, and here you can learn some more technical aspects of the film, including the direction, cinematography, lighting, post-production, artistic concepts and set design.

The storyboards last 10 minutes, and are basically pencil sketches animated to the film`s soundtrack. And as you would expect, there is the original trailer.

Oldboy

Oldboy`s trailer gets onto the main feature disc, as well as three audio commentaries.

The Director`s Commentary from Par Chan-wook is a laconic affair, which while pretty informative is also quite technical. By himself, the director is understated and none too voluble, and this isn`t the easiest track to listen to (or read).

The Director & Cinematographer Commentary sees Park joined by Jeong Jeong-hun, and as you would expect this track is devoted to the look of the film, the camera angles and lenses, set design and lighting and all the technical chicanery that goes into transforming words on a page to celluloid magic. We also learn what Bleach Bypass actually means, and how it can be a perilous process to subject your footage to.

Finally for this disc, there is a Director & Cast Commentary, which reunites Park Chan-wook, Choi Min-sik, Gang Hye-jung and Yu Ji-tae to look back over the film. Like most group commentaries, this is a more light-hearted and jovial affair, and is easy to listen to.

Oldboy`s second disc is devoted to just one featurette, The Autobiography Of Oldboy. However this is a featurette that lasts 3 and half hours. It`s a video diary of the shooting of the film, and as such is presented as b-roll footage, albeit with some asides from the cast and crew. Without any narration or commentary, it seems excessive for a behind the scenes feature, but there are points of interest, as well as glimpses of scenes that didn`t make the final cut. One thing quickly becomes apparent, the more harrowing and bleak a film is, the more fun the cast and crew have making it.

Lady Vengeance

Park Chan-wook introduces Lady Vengeance on the feature disc, as well as contributing to two of the three commentaries.

Le Yeong-ae (Geum-ja) joins him on the Director & Actress Commentary, and it is an informative if understated track. It`s pretty scene specific, and packed with the sort of info and trivia that fans will appreciate, but it does make you work for it.

Director Of Photography & Art Director Commentary sees Park Chan-wook, joined by Jeong Jeong-hun and Jo Hwa-seong, and as you would expect this focuses more on the look of the film. Unfortunately it is taken from the theatrical full colour version, but as they talk about what could have been (and what is finally presented on this disc) it does become relevant.

The final commentary comes from critic Richard Pena, and if you like your movies dissected and analysed to the smallest frame, then this is the commentary for you.

It must be said that the subtitles for the commentaries are all over the place when it comes to Korean names, and more often than not they are spelt phonetically, and rarely the same spelling twice. The sound sync issues are also apparent here.

On the second disc are all the featurettes, and following the current Hollywood trend, are chopped up into convenient bite size pieces for those who are short of attention span.

The Making Of Lady Vengeance lasts 11 minutes, and offers a behind the scenes look.

The Style Of Lady Vengeance has five featurettes with Visualisation (6 mins), Production Design (8 mins), Costume & Make Up (8 mins), Art (7 mins) and CG (7 mins). You get to see how the film is stylistically different from its predecessor, the look of the film and the set design, the meaning of red eye-shadow, the film`s practical effects and how computer graphics were used to fill in the gaps. Unfortunately there is no play all option.

There are 14 minutes of Alternate Scenes, although as opposed to blurb on the box, the commentary track is all there is, and not optional.

The Characters encompass interviews with the cast, beginning with Lee Yeoun-ae (7 mins), Choi Min-sik (7 mins), The Prisoner (5 mins with the actresses who joined Geum-ja in her prison cell), and The Bereaved (7 mins) that focus on the families that lost their children. Again there is no play all option.

Lady Vengeance In Venice lasts 8 minutes and sees the cast and crew bring the film to the Venice Film Festival to much critical acclaim.

Finally the Trailers (3) and TV Spots (3) complete the extras.


All discs get impressive animated menus, and the extras are all subtitled for the non-English dialogue.

Conclusion

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance

Sympathy For Mr Vengeance is the weakest of the three films, although that is like comparing iron to steel and titanium. The plot is convoluted certainly, and full of unexpected twists and turns, but at times it loses focus and begins to meander. That is intentional of course. We begin the film with protagonist Ryu, the deaf and dumb man who is in desperate straits when it comes to saving his sister. The second protagonist Park Dong-jin isn`t introduced until half an hour into the film, and even at that he seems like a bit player, inconsequential to the plot. As the story unfolds, the emphasis begins to shift between the two, and it`s here that the film seems to pause to take breath, before gathering pace to the unexpected conclusion.

This is no good guys versus bad guys film, and the only characters with mercenary intentions are the organ dealers who act as the fuse to set this explosive tale in motion. Both the protagonists are likeable; they have the purest of motivations, yet desperation and the desire for revenge sets them on a collision course. The layering of intentions is what makes this story so fascinating. It`s bleak, chilling, a little depressing, and darkly comic. Of the three films this is perhaps the richest in terms of comedy, with bizarre situations and odd moments throughout, and more often than not I was laughing out loud, rather than wincing in sympathetic agony. The chain of events that leads Ryu to his dire straits, is the sort of coincidence that is engineered by a capricious god, just when you don`t think that it could get any worse, it does. The film is filled with memorable quirks. I love the way that Ryu narrates the story through captions, and he and his girlfriend have a mirror at the end of the bed for pillow talk. Indeed, sign language during the height of passion would seem utterly logical; you just never expect to see it.

Desperation such as that which motivates Ryu needs a cause, and in Sympathy, it serves as a backdrop to the film. The social malaise and discontent of a recession permeates the film, and motivates the protagonists. His inability to afford the treatment for his sister spurs Ryu on his outlandish schemes, while Dong-jin is a businessman who is resented by those who are less well off. Ryu`s girlfriend fancies herself as a radical, dead set against capitalism and uses her leftist arguments to convince Ryu that the kidnapping will be a good idea. But while this tone of the film does advance into the forefront on occasion, it remains a constant character in the film, and adds to the uneasiness of the piece.

Oldboy

Oldboy takes the idea of two opposing revenges and turns the proverbial dials up to eleven. From the first frame the intensity and energy of the piece is tangible, and the tension keeps on building as the story progresses. It`s no surprise that the imagery of this film is so striking and memorable. Unlike the earlier film, the characters aren`t likeable, their situations not as affecting to an audience, and the last thing they deserve is sympathy. However the film is just as suffused with unexpected twists and turns, and once again we have two characters that dominate the narrative. We aren`t expected to choose between them though.

We begin with Oh Dae-Su, who after a drunken night out is abducted and held prisoner for fifteen years, fifteen years in which his world and family are destroyed, where he is kept from the outside world, not knowing who his tormentor is or why he is made to suffer, and not even allowed to end his own misery. After these fifteen years, he`s turned into a veritable force of nature, not far removed from a beast, burning with the desire to avenge himself. This burning intensity is apparent from the first frame, a heat akin to the surface of the sun. When he is released we are totally justified in expecting him to tear everything apart in his quest to find who did this to him.

But his lust for vengeance is as ephemeral as a candle flame compared to that which motivates his tormentor, the man who engineered his confinement, and who now has released him in order to play out his carefully orchestrated plan. A moment so brief that Oh Dae-Su barely remembers it has set into motion an epic revenge, years in the planning and utterly Machiavellian in its execution. Oh Dae Su`s fire is engulfed in this cold calculation of a man who has no purpose in his life other than to exact his revenge.

Oldboy is an enervating spectacle that grabs you by the vitals and doesn`t let you go until the climax, leaving you breathless in its wake.

Lady Vengeance

The last film of the trilogy, Lady Vengeance brings the cycle to its inevitable conclusion, re-examining aspects of the first two films, but with a reflective and melancholic air, and more of a focus on what the act of vengeance really does to a person. More than the vengeance itself, this is really a film about expiation of guilt, and the seeking of redemption, and as such is the perfect film to end the trilogy with.

Unlike the first two films, this is really about the desire for vengeance of just one person, Lee Geum-ja, who thirteen years previously was arrested and imprisoned for kidnapping and infanticide, and has spent the intervening years reforming and becoming the model inmate. It`s all a front though, as is revealed through flashback. There is much more to the crime she was imprisoned for than meets the eye, and her time inside has been spent planning a suitable revenge for the true criminal of the piece, as well as fostering the friendships that will help her achieve it.

It`s when she learns that the child that was taken from her thirteen years previously, was put up for adoption that her outlook changes. She seeks the child out, ostensibly for some sense of closure, but instead finds a daughter who needs a mother, if only to blame for her abandonment. From that point on, the desire for retribution becomes more a need for redemption, a rebirth or awakening of a person that is capable of loving a child. And with that, the desire for revenge becomes something more akin to a need for justice, and events become a whole lot more complicated.

Lady Vengeance is a slower paced, more considered film, but is easily the strongest character study of the three, and the Fade To White version presented here is perhaps the best way to appreciate what it tries to accomplish.


The Vengeance Trilogy boxset would be the ideal shiny Christmas gift, were it not for a couple of gnawing niggles. For one, this is hardly the definitive collection. Quite obviously we are missing the theatrical version of Lady Vengeance, while the original release of Oldboy has a comprehensive extras disc that isn`t available here. As such, this can really only supplement those two original releases rather than replace them. More importantly, and the deal-breaker for me is the glaring sound sync problem with Lady Vengeance. It`s the sort of flaw that should be picked up prior to the release stage, and for me renders watching the film difficult, if not impossible. If you are similarly inconvenienced, then there is a phone number for Tartan`s distributor printed on the bottom of the packaging. Still, these are three outstanding and memorable films, with stories that entrance, and cinematography that blows the mind.


ADDENDUM: Tartan Video are indeed aware of the sound issues with Lady Vengeance, and have a disc replacement programme in place. Your first port of call should be the phone number at the bottom of the packaging, and they`ll put you in touch with the right people at Tartan.